[mschuster91]

> At least early in the pandemic, US healthcare providers weren't routinely aspirating.

... What? Here in Germany, that's like one of the basic things that people who deal with needles on anything alive learn.

[taolegal]

yea it doesn't happen much at all in the US, tons of normal ppl were hired to inject people and AFAIK that was never really part of instruction

[nradov]

I don't know the injection practices in Germany. The WHO and US CDC no longer recommend aspiration prior to intramuscular injection, mainly over pain management concerns. (I'm not claiming this is a good idea, just pointing out the current injection protocol.)

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/general-recs/admi...

In practice there is a wide variance between US healthcare providers depending on where they work and how they were trained. Some aspirate, some don't, some try but use the wrong technique.